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One of the biggest points of frustration for the Miami Dolphins fans over the course of the past decade or so has been an understandable but annoying byproduct of the team’s mediocrity. The Dolphins have just one playoff appearance in the past decade, which as led for the national media to become largely indifferent towards the team.
But that’s all set to change thanks to one left-handed quarterback with a championship pedigree and a million dollar smile. The Dolphins are banking on new franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa not just being a catalyst for better offensive play, they’re banking on his being the remedy to one of the cruel facts about Miami over the last decade.
No one seems to care about the Dolphins.
How many network segments have tossed the Dolphins into the back end as an afterthought on the recap shows? How many headlines have the Dolphins commanded for the right kinds of reasons? It’s been a dark, dim and marginal decade for Miami. But Tagovailoa has the platform and the power to change all of that, regardless of whether or not he’s going to be commanding a potent, high scoring offense. Because Tagovailoa was the talk of the draft in the build-up. It wasn’t so much about Joe Burrow, the slam-dunk choice at No. 1. It was the mystery and the intrigue of Tagovailoa that commanded headlines. Tagovailoa’s “Pro Day” workout was posted in 7-minute increments from prominent NFL reporters on social media, for crying out loud.
There’s no question Tagovailoa has a draw unlike anything the Dolphins have seen since, well, maybe Dan Marino. Perhaps the splashy hire of Bill Parcells to football operations could qualify. Even Nick Saban wasn’t Nick Saban until after he packed up overnight and bailed to go back to Alabama. You could argue that running back Ricky Williams was a standout star and a draw that would parallel the likes of what Miami will now see from Tagovailoa — we should all hope this time around things are a little less bumpy than the Ricky Williams saga.
Regardless of how long it’s been, it feels like forever. And for Dolphins fans, the non-step attention we’re going to see paid to Tagovailoa (and by extension, the Dolphins), is going to take some getting used to.